Floridians will vote Nov. 4 on whether to legalize medical marijuana. What could it mean for patients, the health care industry and the burgeoning pot industry if the required 60 percent of voters say yes to pot? Here are some key facts to keep in mind:

1) Nobody will be buying or selling legal medical pot in Florida until late 2015 or early 2016

Amendment 2 gives the Florida Department of Health until early July to establish regulations to make the system work. The department then has until early October to license the first Medical Treatment Centers. Until then, no one can start growing, much less selling. The first harvest might not come in until late 2015 or beyond. Regulations may forbid Treatment Centers from importing pot from other states or countries for resale. And even if Florida does allow that, postal regulations. airline rules and state laws probably would make importation impractical. Imagine a truck full of pot driving from Colorado to Florida. If it gets stopped in Arkansas, authorities will not care that the pot is legal in both Colorado and Florida. Buyers probably will have to await the first harvest.

2) The regulations will fill in many missing details

The amendment does not address the sale of medical marijuana to minors. The regulations will probably mimic other states and require parental consent, but those regulations remain to be drafted. Regulators will also decide whether caregivers can have criminal records, how much pot a patient could possess, whether Florida will honor a medical marijuana card from another state and dozens of other details. The amendment foresees that regulators will establish Treatment Center licensing fees and procedures, as well as rules about security, inventory control, testing and inspections. Local zoning laws could also come into play. Read More…

Related Posts

The patent, called “Cannabinoids as Antioxidants and Neuroprotectants,” was quietly filed in 2005 when scientists from the NIH found certain cannabis compounds had neuroprotectant properties, “for example, in limiting neurological damage following ischemic insults, such as stroke or trauma, or the treatment of neurological diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and HIV dementia.”